President Obama announced a public-private manufacturing innovation institute that will partner with the federal government to strengthen U.S. manufacturing, and will be focused on power electronics. Known as the Next Generation Power Electronics Institute, it will provide the innovation infrastructure needed to support new product and process technologies, education, and training to become a global center of excellence for the development of wide bandgap semiconductor devices and industry-relevant processes.
Supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), the institute’s headquarters will be located on North Carolina State University’s Centennial campus.

The North Carolina headquartered consortium of 18 companies and 6 universities include the following NEMA members: ABB, Cree, Delta Products, Toshiba International, and Vacon. The latter company was the site of the president’s announcement of this new initiative.

DOE will award $70 million over five years, matched by at least $70 million in non-federal commitments by the winning team of businesses and universities, along with the state of North Carolina.

NEMA and its more than 400 member companies are committed to working with the administration to increase the nation’s energy efficiency through improvements in residential and industrial energy efficiency, high performance buildings, Smart Grid technologies, and intelligent transportation systems.

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The National
Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) represents nearly 350 electrical
equipment and medical imaging manufacturers that make safe, reliable, and efficient products
and systems. Our combined industries
account for 360,000 American jobs in more than 7,000 facilities covering every
state. Our industry produces $106 billion shipments of electrical equipment and
medical imaging technologies per year with $36 billion exports.